Reported pretax profits at CRH would have been 9 per cent higher last year if they had been recorded using International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), the firm said yesterday.

The main reason for the higher figure of €1.1 billion would have been the treatment of goodwill under the new accounting standards, which CRH will use in future results.

The same driver would have seen reported profits after tax last year rising by 13 per cent to €872 million, CRH said. The changes would have led to the firm's basic earnings per share being 14 per cent higher at 163.6 cent.

The company would also have noted a substantial difference in its debt levels if it had used IFRS last year. Net debt would have been 13 per cent higher at €2.8 billion, principally because the new standards would have required CRH to include the net debt of its joint ventures in the overall figure.

The firm's total equity would have fallen by 6 per cent to €5.3 billion under IFRS because of the inclusion of pension and deferred assets and liabilities.

Analysts were content with CRH's analysis of the impact of the new standards yesterday, chiefly because they had been briefed on the issue last year.

Robert Eason at Goodbody said the changes were mostly minor and would probably not lead to any significant changes to his 2005 earnings estimates for the building materials group.

This was particularly true in light of CRH's recent bullish agm statement, the projected positive impact of acquisitions and the weakening euro, he said.

Joe Burnell at the company's broker, Davy, said the IFRS briefing represented "further confirmation of the quality of CRH's financials".

Shares in CRH fell by 28 cent to €20.52 in Dublin yesterday.